Smaller companies report: Thursday close

By This Is Money
Updated: 12:24 EDT, 15 June 2006

UK SMALL caps continued to strengthen throughout today's session and closed at an intra-day high, fuelled by several companies' upbeat trading updates and following the wider market rally.

The FTSE Small Cap index ended 50.1 points higher at 3,308.8, while the FTSE 100 also enjoyed a strong session, closing up 112.5 points at 5,619.3.

Among the small cap risers, Hardys & Hansons was a prominent gainer, rallying over 18.5% or 164½p at 1,044½p after announcing that Greene King has agreed to buy the East Midland-based brewer in a bid valuing Hardys & Hansons at around £270m.

Aspen Clean Energy climbed 0.75p to 7.5p after announcing it intends to return about £10m of capital and is seeking a reverse takeover. After the reduction of capital, the board believes the cash retained by the company, of about £2.8m, could make it attractive to a number of companies seeking admission to Aim.

The directors' main investment criteria is that such a company should be an environmental or 'green' business in the UK or Europe.

Elsewhere, Acambis soared as analysts advised investors to take a fresh look at the British vaccine maker following the recent decline in its share price, and given a handful of potential catalysts on the horizon. Acambis closed 22p higher at 154p.

Meanwhile, Hallin Marine Subsea International climbed 8½p to 68½p after the provider of solutions to the oil and gas industry said it has won two new contracts with a combined value of a minimum of $4.3m.

Among those reporting results, shares in Symphony Plastic Technologies added 1.13p to 1125p after the degradable plastics company said sales are growing as household-name brands in various countries are increasingly using its products for environmentally-friendly packaging.

Another top performer was Dart Group, jumping 32¼p to 407½p after revealing today that it has raised pre-tax profit in the year to end-March to £15m from £8.4m the prior year and also proposing to split the ordinary shares into four. The aviation services and distribution group said current trading is in line with budget and with expectations.

From the end of this week, we shall no longer be running our daily small-caps report. However, you will always be able to find our invaluable weekly round-up of the best of the small-caps action here: thisismoney.co.uk/columnists.

Still among results, OMG was also popular, trading 1½p higher at 32p as the technology group, a supplier of motion capture technology to the entertainment, defence, life science and engineering industries, disclosed a swing to profits at the half-way mark.

Seven Arts Pictures rallied on the back of numbers released today, gaining 1p at 11½p. The Los Angeles-based film studio told investors it had notched up a five-fold rise in revenues for the 12 months to March 31, with stable margins.

Sales for the year shot up 400% to about £9m, after a second-half contribution of £5.5m, it said.

Business Systems slipped ¼p to 12p after warning that a reduction in contractual revenues, and the inevitable impact on gross margins, is expected to take the group back into loss in the short term. The warning came with news of a near-36% rise in the full-year profit.

The main reason for the reduction was the loss of the Mapeley Estates' outsourcing contract with effect from March 28.